ABSTRACT
Geographical conditions in China are such that without the development of a system of water-control as an integral part of its agricultural practice, agricultural production could never have reached so high a stage as it did. As for the agricultural fields which are situated in alluvial plains, river valleys/former river/lake beds, where the best agriculture in North as well as South China is found, irrigation as a fertilizing agent is just as important, if not more so, as in the loess steppes, though it operates differently. As the natural conditions that made water-control a necessity in Chinese agriculture are the character of its soil and climate and the peculiar demands of its major food crop, rice, the geographical basis for regionalization is the peculiar character of its topography. The mountain ranges separating the major river systems of China constituted barriers that created an economic and political regionalization and provided the physical basis for divided rule in China for many centuries.
